Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Seeks Comments on Proposal for Motorized Vehicle Use

The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, located in southern Oregon, is formulating a new travel plan that will limit ALL vehicle use to designated roads, trails and areas. On August 26, 2008, the Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) was published in the Federal Register, beginning the public scoping period for travel management.

The Forest Service (FS) is asking for your input during the 45-day public scoping comment period, on a proposal to designate motorized use on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and amend the Forest Plans. The public is asked to provide any public comments on the proposal by October 14, 2008, to be considered in the preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

The public is encouraged to get involved during this stage of the planning process as their comments and feedback on the Proposed Action will help to develop alternatives. A Forest Service team will look at the public comments and identify the significant issues that focus the analysis and generate possible alternatives to the proposed action in the Environmental Impact Statement. Completion of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement is expected by November 2008.

The Proposed Action designates the location, type of vehicle and season of use for motorized vehicles across the entire Forest in order to meet the intent of the Travel Management Rule. Over-the-snow vehicles are excluded from the Proposed Action.

The release of the Proposed Action in the Notice of Intent begins the formal analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Proposed Action includes:

Prohibiting public access on approximately 60-65 miles of roads currently open in order to minimize or reduce resource damage Designating approximately 3,390 miles of road where mixed use would be allowed. Mixed use is defined as designation of a National Forest System road for use by both highway-legal and non-highway-legal motor vehicles Constructing two motorized trails to provide loop route opportunities (approximately 2 miles) Converting approximately 20-25 miles of closed national forest system roads to motorized trails Designating two areas where off-road motorized use is allowed. This includes continued use of the Woodruff area near Prospect and the development of an additional motorized play area near Willow Lake on the High Cascades Ranger District Enacting Forest Plan amendments to make these Plans consistent with the Travel Management RuleForest personnel have verified and completed an inventory of existing open roads and trails. On the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, there are approximately 4,620 road miles and approximately 1,155 trail miles. Motorized trails account for approximately 15% (170 miles) of the total trail miles.

Copies of the Scoping Letter, Notices of Intent and maps displaying the Proposed Action are available on the Forest's website at: www.fs.fed.us/r6/rogue-siskiyou/projects/travel. For those who do not have Internet access, maps and documents will be available to view at the various Ranger District Offices or Supervisor's Office.